Conservationists have dropped a lawsuit saying they were excluded from a press conference on a controversial timber sale in the Bitterroot National Forest because of their views.

The three individuals in the suit, who were not accused of disrupting the press conference, were escorted from the premises by armed Forest Service officers. Stewart Brandborg, Larry Campbell, and Jim Miller were joined in the suit by the Friends of the Bitterroot.

After an appeals court ruled against them, the conservationists dropped their suit because they had run out of funds.